Condemned of Space (LiS episode)
Summary The first episode of the third season finds the Robinsons suddenly threatened by a comet that is on a collision course with the planet that they are living on. After an emergency lift off to avoid disaster, the Jupiter 2 narrowly avoids colliding with the comet itself. When this emergency is avoided, Don spots a supernova nearby, but the Robinson party is in no danger. Meanwhile, Dr. Smith has completed his memoirs and wishes to cast them adrift in space. His incompetence leads to a depressurization of the Jupiter 2, and the Robot being blown overboard. Now the Robot and the Jupiter 2 are in great danger from the supernova. The Jupiter 2 and the Robot both survive the supernova, and are re-united. In the process, the Robinsons have discovered a large space ship. In fact, they cannot avoid it and the Jupiter 2 lands on it. Professor Robinson and Major West enter the large space ship and discover that it is a refrigerated prison ship (later identified, by the on-board A.I. as the "Vera Castle," the planet Vera being its homeworld). The ship is in a state of disrepair. Even the clock that keeps track of the prisoners sentences is broken. The prisoners are guarded by a robot that is played by the same costume that played the robotoid in War of the Robots. Will, the Robot, and Smith eventually follow the Professor and Major West into the prison ship. One of the prisoners is set free by Dr. Smith's bungling. Soon dozens of prisoners are free and about to riot. Professor Robinson stops the riot by repairing the prison ship's central timepiece. When this is working properly, the prisoners are all officially freed. They then take some equipment from the prison ship to use to repair the Jupiter 2, and the Robinson party is able to depart safely. Background information *Comets are not hot. This misunderstanding of the laws of physics also complicated The Derelict. Comets are also relatively light compared to planets. Halley's Comet is only one ten-billionth the mass of the Earth. If the Jupiter 2 can lift off and get away from the planet it should have not a problem evading the gravity pull of a comet. *Robbie the Robot returns to threaten the Robinsons. *This is the first episode of the third season, and there were numerous changes between this and the previous seasons. Everyone has new costumes, with the men's outfits having a more unifying theme. The opening credits were redesigned to reflect the intent of establishing an action/adventure tone. To begin with, the teaser would end on a freeze frame, then the screen would be filled with a countdown from 7 to 1, which would then lead into a new opening credit sequence and theme. This was meant to prepare the audience for a more action/adventure based series. *This is the first appearance of the lighter, stunt Robot used for more complicated scenes. It should be noted that this second Robot was referred to as the Dummy Robot on all original series paperwork. *In the first scene, the sand is missing from the floor of the set. This was removed to facilitate the filming of the spacewalk scene. *Marcel Hillaire would coincidentally return in the final episode of the season (and series), Junkyard in Space. *Several of the frozen prisoners are seen moving on their freezing pedestals. *The prison ship "Vera Castle" is a different model ship than the "Interspace Probe X-L-7-3" from a later episode "Kidnapped In Space"; "X-L-7-3" is a re-use of the alien spacecraft model from the first season episode The Derelict. Links and references Cast *Guy Williams as Professor John Robinson *June Lockhart as Maureen Robinson *Mark Goddard as Don West *Marta Kristen as Judy Robinson *Billy Mumy as Will Robinson *Angela Cartwright as Penny Robinson *Jonathan Harris as Dr. Zachary Smith *Marcel Hillaire as Phanzig Uncredited Cast *Bob May as the Robot *Dick Tufeld as the Robot (voice) References External link Category:Lost in Space episodes